IN the thirteenth chapter of Matthew's Gospel is recorded a remarkable series of parables in which Christ Jesus, the Way-shower, unfolds the nature of the kingdom of heaven, and shows how it is to be attained. In the second of these parables, that of the tares, he deals specifically with a problem which, perhaps more than any other, has perplexed the earnest church worker. This parable appears to be especially helpful to the church as an organized body, and when studied from this point of view its teaching regarding the handling of error is found to be of vital importance to members.
In accordance with this parable, as applied to the church, the good seed has been sown, the Word has gone forth. The workers are all busy and eager to further the interest of the Cause when, contrary to expectations, tares appear in the midst of the wheat. In this situation the ardent servants hasten to their master, point out the tares, and ask whence they came. The reply is, "An enemy hath done this." "Wilt thou then that we go and gather them up?" ask the servants in their eagerness to help on the good work and to preserve the harmony; but the wise reply of the householder shows just where the kingdom of heaven reigns. "Nay," he answers, "lest while ye gather up the tares, ye root up also the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest: and in the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them: but gather the wheat into my barn."
In his detailed explanation of this parable, Jesus defined "the reapers" as "the angels." Here, then, we have what is surely a most important instruction, coming from the Way-shower himself; for here is set out the Master's definite answer to the age-long question, How is evil to be destroyed? In their zeal the servants in the parable had offered to attack the tares; but the householder, rejecting such a method, said, No, let them alone until the harvest; and in the time of harvest I will command the reapers to destroy the tares and gather up the wheat into my barn.
What are these angel reapers that must deal with the tares and care for the wheat? On page 581 of the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, may be found the following wonderfully illuminating definition of the word "angels": "Angels. God's thoughts passing to man; spiritual intuitions, pure and perfect; the inspiration of goodness, purity, and immortality, counteracting all evil, sensuality, and mortality." Who would not leave the field of thought to such angel reapers? Who would not seek such helpers to tend the harvest, rather than attempt to uproot the seeming tares, often with small regard for the tender, growing wheat beside them? This is indeed the Christ-way, and is, therefore, the only way by which evil in all its phases can be finally eliminated from human consciousness.
Now this does not mean simply sitting down and doing nothing while error claims activity. The effect of evil suggestions upon individual thought is either to stir it up into a tumult of indignation or to browbeat or befog it into acquiescence. But neither of these states of thought can destroy the belief in evil. The former, regarding evil as real, has not yet risen to the spiritual understanding of the allness and ever-presence of God, good, which alone can destroy the seeming presence of evil. And the latter condition of thought is mesmerized into a state of apathy or mental inactivity, during which, as the parable shows, the enemy is busy sowing tares. But to know the truth about the tares even while they seem to grow, and calmly wait "until the harvest," as the Master enjoined, involves an active self-discipline which is indeed one's warfare with the "old man," one's belief in evil. So long as one feels one's self stirred up to attack the tares as real, —to be impelled by resentment or anger to condemn or control persons, —he may be sure that the harvest time has not yet arrived when he has welcomed into his own consciousness the angel reapers of God's loving thoughts, in which there is no sense of evil as real. While this inward battle is in progress, it is wise to remember that God governs.
The belief in evil as real will never help one to destroy evil. When one's eye is single to behold good as the only reality, the heart is filled with Truth and Love; one looks out from the Father's viewpoint, and, lo! where are the tares? In beautiful harmony with the Master's teaching our beloved Leader says (Science and Health, p. 201): "The way to extract error from mortal mind is to pour in truth through flood-tides of Love. Christian perfection is won on no other basis."
The parable states that "while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went his way." This reference to sleep as the precursor of the trouble is very significant. There is, perhaps, no more subtle and prevalent means used by the "enemy" for sowing his worthless and trouble-breeding tares among those who are associated in seeking to demonstrate the stately truths of Christian Science, than evil speaking and the spreading of false accusations about fellow workers when they are unaware of it. Such a condition does not yield "the peaceable fruit of righteousness," of which the Bible speaks; nor can it measure up to the standard of him who came not to condemn the world, "but that the world through him might be saved." It should never be forgotten that the whole purpose of the church is to save, to bless, to heal, and not to injure. The way to destroy the effects of wrong thinking is by positive right thinking; and this is the task of each individual member. Thus, under the impulsion and guidance of divine ideas, only good will be voiced and love reflected; and the wrong will be seen for what it is, namely, a passing phase of nothingness, being no part of the real man, and having no place in Church.
This spiritual understanding of the allness and ever-presence of good and of the nothingness of evil,—however much the latter may seem to be in evidence,—which Christian Science inculcates, is not attained without an inward struggle with personal sense, sometimes severe, often prolonged; yet it is this strife carried to a successful issue—all within one's own consciousness—that contributes most to the unfolding of the Church universal and triumphant over the claims of mortal mind.
Christian Science stands for healing, both within and without the church; and this healing of all evil belief will come only through the spiritualization of individual consciousness, through recognition of man as the likeness of his Maker, and discernment that spiritual man is governed by the one perfect divine Mind, God, who is "of purer eyes than to behold evil."
